IOR/R/15/2/464

This file concerns possible anti-Saudi activities in the Persian Gulf. It contains correspondence between the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf at Bushire, the Political Agent at Bahrain, and Charles Dalrymple Belgrave. In addition, there are copies of correspondence with Sir Andrew Ryan, Albert Spencer Calvert and Sir Reader Bullard of the British Legation at Jedda.

The correspondence of 1933 (ff 2-20) concerns suspicions that Khalid Ibn Hithlain [Khālid bin Muḥammad bin Ḥithlayn] of the Ajman tribe proposes to enter Nejd [Najd] with 'evil intent' from Kuwait or Bahrain. Included are details of a meeting between the Political Agent and Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah who doubts that Khālid would consider Bahrain as a location for buying supplies or as a staging ground for an attack, but instead suspects that he might be acting in collusion with an enemy of ‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd [Ibn Saud], for example, his brother, Muḥammad bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Āl Sa‘ūd (ff 3-6). In addition, there are copies of personal letters on the same subject between Fuad Hamza, [Fu’ād Ḥamzah], Ryan, Calvert and Amir Faisal [Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd] (ff 14-20).

A copy of a letter, dated 12 April 1939, from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Sir Reader Bullard, concerns a meeting between Sir Lancelot Oliphant and Faysal regarding the potential threat to Saudi Arabia from Nazi Germany, the likelihood of the incorporation of Koweit [Kuwait] into Iraq, and British rule of the Persian Gulf (ff 21-23).

File notes at the rear of the file (ff 24-26) include brief genealogical and biographical details concerning Khalid, as well as the Ajman tribe.